Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen

Board Meeting Minutes

Page 1

Meeting Date: March 11, 2009

Meeting Location: RMAE Middle School Building - Spanish Classroom
Meeting called to order at: 06:38 PM by Vice President Jeff Robertson
Board members in attendance:
John Morrill (President) Bill Tomasi Ryan Lucas (non-voting)
Jeff Wilhite Nancy Fiore Jeff Robertson
Karen Hines Mike Novick Jon Tesseo
Seanna Mulligan

Others in attendance (from sign in sheet):

Claudia Bloom Sarah Beiriger Stephanie Seybold
Debbie Caruso Dina Walton

A Quorum is reached with those present and on the phone.

Meeting notification requirements have been met.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance.

Board and Public Comment:

• Sarah Beiriger informed the Board that she is on the math committee and has a child coming
next year to RMAE and just wants to find out more about RMAE.
• Claudia Bloom. Read her email that she sent to the Board regarding her request for Health
Insurance.
• Stephanie Seybold is here because we are going to discuss after school program for the pre-
school and this is of interest to her.
{Claudia Bloom leaves the meeting at this point}
Consent Agenda:
• Minutes from the 02/19/09 meeting were read and approved.
Motion: Jeff R motioned to accept the 02/19/09 meeting minutes; Nancy seconded the
motion.
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Discussion: none.
Vote: 6-0, approved (Bill abstained).

Updates:
• Director – Ryan sent his Directors report electronically to the Board. Some highlights from
his report are as follows:
o Leave of Absence policy.
o 2 signed copies of the charter renewal and need to decide which statutes and policies
we want to apply for a waiver from.
o CSAP update
Dina questioned Ryan assertion that RMAE does not have a leave of absence policy and read
to the Board a section from the Teachers Handbook related to Leaves of Absences and the
Board policies regarding At-Will employment which states that you cannot promise someone
a job beyond the one year timeframe. She warns the Board against rash decisions and wants
to have the Board evaluate these types of decisions over the summer and not mid-stream.
Mike Novick commented that if a teacher wants a leave of absence that is ok but there is no
guarantee of a contract the follow year and that this is the same for every teacher at RMAE
because we hire teachers for a 1 year term. We cannot state that any teacher will have a
contract 2 years from now. Mike also states that he does not feel that we need a policy to
address this because it is addressed inherently in our operations.
Ryan Lucas states that there is concern among the teachers around this issue and that he has
heard that they are looking for a decision related to this so he would like to see the Board
make a motion one way or the other.
Jeff Wilhite stated that he does not feel the Board should not change policies in the middle of
the year.
Jon Tesseo stated that he feels we should address policy changes before the new contracts go
out so this is the right time to do this, however, since every teacher here knows they are an
employee at will there does not have to be a stated policy because every teacher can take a
year off.
Mike Novick stated that he feels that anything related to this would have to be carefully
worded and that we should get legal review prior to any changes being made.
Ryan Lucas reiterated that he does not think that this is clear to the teachers. He references a
letter from a teacher who is asking for this exact ruling and wants to know who is going to
respond.
Mike Novick stated that he feels confident that Ryan can respond to the teacher with our
guidance on wording if required. Ryan would be the one to make the decision to hire the
teacher back if/when they re-apply anyway.
Karen Hines asked if the teacher would need to go back through the entire hiring process or
would Ryan be able to just re-instate them?
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Dina Walton stated that RMAE may get into a discrimination issue if the teacher is not
forced to go through the entire process.
Mike Novick stated that it needs to be clearly stated to the teacher that there is no guarantee
that there will be an opening in the future. He also pointed out that RMAE may have a
harder time hiring a teacher for a 1 year term if we were “holding” the position for a teacher
on “leave” and that we of course want to hire the best teachers.
Dina Walton reiterated that the Board needs to be careful about this as this is a situation that
is ripe for a lawsuit if not handled carefully.
Ryan Lucas stated that these discussions are the reason for the concern with the teacher and
why they want a ruling one way or the other.
Mike Novick stated that there isn’t any confusion on this issue: There are no leaves of
absences because we are a 1 year at-will school.
Jon Tesseo asked if we need to add a sentence or two to the employee handbook clarifying
this?
Mike Novick stated that if Ryan thinks this clarification is required and it is clearly worded
ten he is ok with adding it to the handbook.

CSAP Update:
A family requested that their children not be pulled from core classes in order to take the
CSAP retest so Ryan is going to come in on a weekend and proctor it.

Elk Summit:
At the most recent Elk Summit HOA meeting, they stated that they are not happy with
the color of our buildings – specifically the red. Ryan’s advice is to paint the long sides of
the building facing the highway and the short sides facing Elk Summit green in order to
blend in more with the surroundings. Mike feels this is a waste of our money and would
recommend not doing this.
Traffic is also a concern for Elk Summit and Ryan is working with the county and the
state on this issue.
Attendence: 160 school days are required by Colorado law and our current school year is
177 days . Parents are at risk to being taken to truancy court if their children miss more than
17 days of school.
Roseanne is an alternative grand juror this month so she may be called away on short notice.

• PTO – None.
• Preschool – Debbie Caruso
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o Preschool Lease – Debbie informed the Board that she is waiting on approval from
the Board so she can execute it with the synagogue. The path is not addressed in this
contract. Same 1 year term with the ability to renew at our sole discretion for 3 years.
Motion: Jeff R motioned that Mike Novick and Jon Tesseo review the lease with
CBE and to approve the signature of the lease after acceptable review; Jon seconded
the motion.
Discussion: none.
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained)

o RMAE/CBE Path – According to CBE, the issue of the path is back in the hands of
RMAE. Nancy Fiore indicated that Ann Lane (our legal counsel) identified multiple
issues with the existing indemnification clause. She stated that she will meet with
Ryan and Ann to discuss acceptable language. Debbie stated that because this issue
isn’t solved, it is putting at least 5 families at risk of leaving right now because she
can’t offer a 5 day a week after school program. She informed the Board that
Springboard is willing to enter into an agreement with CBE directly for a 3 day a
week after school but that the families would need to come up to the K-8 campus for
the other 2 days a week and this is not possible without the path. Mike Novick asked
if Springboard would be able to transport the children. Dina Walton said no. Mike
said that there are 2 options available: Have springboard enter into an agreement with
CBE so that there is 3 day a week after school activities and families can decide if
this is enough. The other option is to have teacher / parents / aides walk the children
from building to building. Lengthy discussions ensured around the differences in path
expectations between RMAE and CBE, the indemnification expectations, and the
viability of a 3 day a week after school program at the preschool.
• AAA –
o Study Island:

Nancy Fiore informed the Board that Heather Burbacher came in and strongly
suggested that AAA abandon the Study Island program because she thinks it
is not working well for the kids and a lot of kids don’t use it anyway. Ryan
Lucas stated that it is a requirement but there has been feedback from parents
that it is a waste of time and they won’t have their children do this at home.
o Survey Results from teachers:

They would like much more involvement in decision making

They would like their salaries to match Jeffco

Some think Ryan has “favorites”

They think the school needs a gym
o Survey results from parents:
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Communications from the school not always timely, need to know plans for
expansion, like to see a “format” for teacher conf. and responses from the
Director and teacher not always prompt, want to see Board minutes

Busing: they want it, but don’t want to pay for it

Some parents would like to see an option for a 1 time payment in lieu of PTO
and Board events

Communication from M.S. math is poor

Website needs updating

Too much emphasis on CSAP preparation

Kids and Teachers not respectful in M.S.

Parent Portal: this was a big issue, teachers need to keep it up to date

Homework in M.S. – teachers need to better coordinate so work isn’t all due
the same week- spread out home work and tests

Volunteer hours: some think 60 hours is too much

Some think the Director of the School is doing a great job

Assistant Director – many parents don’t know who he is

Small class size is very important to parents

Some think the Director lacks the experience, makes poor decisions, and is
more of friend to M.S. students

Keyboarding needs to be taught as part of Technology

Special Education as some issues to address

Parents get upset about other parents who park in the circle during pick up and
drop off

We need a gym!

Parents want more option for lunch

Parents think Investigations 2 needs to be replaced

Writing is an issue at the school

Parents would like to see something better to be done about pickup

Lack of interaction between the preschool and main school

Parents would like to see a better process for pickup


o Math Cirriculum:

5 companies came in and presented to the subcommittee. Parents compared
each curriculum against the CORE knowledge requirements and Saxon Math
and McGraw Hill were invited to come in and present.
Motion: Nancy motioned to adopt the McMillen / McGraw Hill as the math
curriculum for 2 through 5th grades with the caveat that we re-evaluate the
curriculum mid- year to decide if we should adopt this curriculum K-1; Ryan
seconded the motion.
Discussion: Ryan indicated that this curriculum was acceptable to both
parents and teachers but was not the most in line with the CORE Knowledge
curriculum. Mike Novick asked why the motion is for McHill if Saxon is
better. Jon Tesseo stated that there had been issues with the Saxon in the past
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and a lot of teachers didn’t like the curriculum in the past and buy in from
teachers is important. Mike indicated that since Saxon is the recommended
curriculum what are the reasons why not Saxon? Ryan Lucas stated that
teachers are professionals and can teach whatever we give them and reiterated
that a subcommittee was established and put in a tremendous effort so why is
the Board questioning the decision? Why have subcommittees go through all
of these issues and come to a conclusion and then have the Board re-evaluate?
Vote: 6-0, approved (Jeff Wilhite abstained)

• Financial – Dina Walton handed out an updated budget spreadsheet to the Board. Some
highlights from the spreadsheet and the discussions that ensued are:
o Transportation costs are higher than expected because JeffCo is now charging for the
miles from the bus barn to the school whereas they weren’t going to do this when
Mike initially spoke with them.
o Copies: Jeff Wilhite stated that while the copy costs are high, part of the issue is the
fixed fee of about $850 with Minolta skews the line item. This is a legacy costs that
pre-dates the current agreement with JeffCo but we are still tied to this agreement and
the copier in question is locate in the preschool office. The pre-school doesn’t use the
maximum allowed copy limit but having people go in and out causes issues with
CBE.
o Mike pointed out that the PPR income is understated because the budget is 8.3 FTEs
under the actual amount and Dina has not updated the spreadsheet to reflect this
change.
• Facilities – Carrie informed the Board that they spoke with General Steel and they are
quoting about $4,900 to mock up solution which would include project manager costs and
allow us to address the astetics issues. If we go forward with the building, we get the costs
applied to the purchase price. Approximate costs to put up a multi purpose building are
about $700,000. Bill Tomasi questioned why the costs were so high in comparison with the
Montessori School of Evergreen building which is a “real” building and looks very nice.
Carrie indicated that she feels we can cut the costs lower than what they are quoting by doing
some of the work ourselves but that she wants to budget for the higher number. Bill Tomasi
stated that he was expecting half of the costs of a “real” building; that the MSOE building
cost about $750k; and that he would have expected around $350k for a steel building. Ryan
Lucas indicated that JeffCo has some temporary buildings we can rent and that he will check
with JeffCo on this and report back to the Board at the next meeting.
• Assistant Director – Rich Goben sent an update to the Board electronically. He feels
strongly that the position of Assistant Director be continued full time next year and that he
stays on in this role. This will be discussed in more detail at the budget and long term
• Annual Giving – We are currently at $51,000 and 65% parent participation. Jeff Robertson
will update the board in the traffic circle.
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Old Business:
• FOCUS - None
• Board Composition / Terms
Motion: Jeff Robertson motioned to change the by-laws in order to adopt 3 year Board
term phased in gradually over the next few elections; Nancy seconded the motion.
Discussion: Mike Novick has concerns about the length of terms going to 3 years as this
is a long term commitment and is concerned this will exclude parents from running.
Carrie Quinn questioned why this was changing and Ryan Lucas provided pros and cons
for this approach. Carrie indicated that this approach will exclude all 7th and 8th grade
parents from running because they cannot fulfill their terms. Mike Novick indicated that
the by-laws state we must have a middle school parent on the Board. Jeff R indicated that
this issue goes away if parents that have more than 1 child in the school. Jeff Wilhite
indicated that this issue was raised by SKS (our bond holder) because they saw a lot of
turnover in our Board and sees this as a risk.
MOTION WITHDRAWN

• Long Range Planning Meeting – Discussions around which meeting (budget or long range)
should be held first next week. Ryan is committed on Wednesday night so he will miss
whatever meeting is held on this night. The decision is that the budget meeting should be
held on the 19th and the long range planning meeting on the 26th. Parents need to be aware
that expanding the class size is a topic of conversation slated for the budget meeting.
• Board Election Process – All letters of interest should go to the Election Subcommittee or
Jeff Robertson.
• Enrollment Waitlist and Enrollment Cutoff Date – The Board is proposing that RMAE
does not maintain a waitlist after the last day of school before the winter break. Interest list
ends on the last day of school before spring break. Discussions ensured around the
differences between a waitlist and an interest list.
Motion: Nancy motioned that the Board adopt the following Enrollment Policy:

Wait List/ Class Placement Policy Proposal

Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen is mandated by our Charter to follow the

Jefferson County’s School Board Policy JFBA and Regulation JFBA-R. Please
refer to this policy on a regular basis for possible changes and revisions. The link
is: http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/enrollment/forms/
Parents who are interested in having their child(ren) attend RMAE must complete
an open enrollment application which is available in January each year.
Students need to be eligible to attend school in the fall of the current year in order
to be added to the waitlist. *(Kindergartners must be 5 as of Oct 1st while
students entering First Grade must be 6 as of October 1st).
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Round 1
All applications received before the end of the 1st round open enrollment will go
through the lottery process. Names are prioritized then randomized and assigned
a place on the waitlist. *Visit this link for specific dates and detailed information.
http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/enrollment/forms/
The lottery will be drawn no earlier than 30 minutes after school is dismissed on
the last day of the lottery.
Every attempt will be made to contact class list recipients by that evening or the
next day via email or phone if email is not available. They will be given one
week in order to respond with a verbal or email response. Once a class list is
verbally accepted, the second step is to send out a District Policy Confirmation
Form. All students waiting on the list will be notified of their number by the end
of January. All students who are not in county will remain at the bottom of every
wait list, until and unless every in county resident student’s needs are met.
Proof of residency requires both:
a) a copy of a utility bill and
b) a copy of driver’s license of parent/guardian
If it is found out during any part of the enrollment process that a child, whether
enrolled in a class list or on a wait list, is in fact not a resident of Jefferson
County, they will become an out of county applicant and all procedures regarding
out of county status will immediately apply.
Round 2
Applications will be accepted until mid February and added to the waitlist after all
of round one in county applicant needs have been met. Once in county resident
applicants have been served, all out of county resident applicants may be referred
to. *Visit this link for specific dates and detailed information regarding round 2:
http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/enrollment/forms/
As class spaces open, the enrollment secretary attempts to contact the next person
on the wait list via provided phone and/or email address information and once all
contact information has been exhausted the next person on the wait list is
contacted. We will continue to offer positions in grades K-8 to students on the
waitlist through August 31st if space is available. After August 31st the wait list
is replaced with an Interest List and applicants may be added to the Interest List
by filling out the Letter of Interest form which is available on our website
(www.rmae.org). From September 1st through October 1st vacancies will be filled
by students from the Interest List in sequence. Students who are not offered a
class spot must repeat this process next January in order to be considered for
enrollment the following year.
Per Jeffco Policy no priority is given to RMAE preschoolers. You must fill out an
open enrollment application to be added to the waitlist.

Jeff Robertson seconded the motion.

Discussions: Jeff Wilhite points out that this is too short of time for the interest list. Jon
Tesseo strongly feels that the cut off period should remain as the last day of school before
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winter break instead of October 1st and Jeff Wilhite agrees. Ryan Lucas indicated that he
does not have a preference one way or the other. Ryan also stated that the reason we are
having this discussion is because the Board voted to expand a class size at a bad time of the
year, that we cannot impact the lottery, and that the subcommittee has made their
recommendation. Jeff Wilhite stated that all other schools have this interest list and we are
going to not have it. Jeff Robertson stated that maintaining an interest list helps with grant
writing. Mike Novick stated that we can maintain the interest list throughout the year but we
will not accept any students after the October 1st cutoff date.
Vote: 5-0, approved (Jeff Wilhite abstained and Jon Tesseo was absent during the vote).

New Business:
• Director Evaluation –
Motion: Mike motioned that the Board move the Director’s Evaluation to the end of the
meeting; Jeff Robertson seconded.
Discussions: None
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained).

• BoardDocs – Bill Tomasi informed the Board that while this would be a very nice tool to
have, the costs ($3,000 per year plus setup costs) far outweigh the benefits and he
recommends that we not pursue this option.
• RMAE Foundation – Discussions on the Foundation were postponed until next meeting.
• Budget Meeting – Discussed earlier.
• Contracts & Leave of Absence – Ryan Lucas informed the Board that there are discussions
ongoing regarding the number of days, or range of days, specifically stated in the staff
contracts and that they should also call out the pay per day. Dina Walton would like to see
the contract a lot more specific in the expectations of the employee like attending staff
meetings, etc. She and Ryan will work through these issues and determine what is in the best
interest of the school and staff relationships.
• AAA Elections – Nancy indicated that the Bylaws state that the Board President ensure that
the AAA elections happen in an orderly manner.
• Director Evaluation –

{All public attendees leave the meeting at this point}

Executive Sessions:
Motion: Jeff Robertson motioned that the Board move into Executive Session pursuant to
section C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(f); Mike Novick seconded.
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Discussions: None
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained).

• Pursuant to section 24-6-402(4)(f), the Board is going into executive session at 9:49pm for
the discussion of Personnel matters except if the employee who is the subject of the session
has requested an open meeting, or if the personnel matter involves more than one employee,
all of the employees have requested an open meeting. The Board has requested that Ryan
Lucas voluntarily step out of the Executive Session (which he does). The Board is inviting
Dina Walton into the Executive Session discussions.

Motion: Jeff Robertson motioned to come out of executive session at 10:52 PM; Mike
Novick seconded the motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained).

Motion: Jeff Robertson motioned that the Board move into Executive Session pursuant to
section C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(f); Mike Novick seconded.
Discussions: None
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained).

• Pursuant to section 24-6-402(4)(f), the Board is going into executive session at 10:52pm for
the discussion of personnel matters, unless the employee asks for an open meeting. The
Board is inviting Dina Walton into the Executive Session discussions.

Motion: Jeff Wilhite motioned to come out of executive session at 11:05 PM; Jeff Robertson
seconded the motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 7-0, approved (no one abstained).

Action Items to be Completed Before Next Board Meeting -

• There needs to be a write up in the next Grizzly Growl that informs parents about the Budget
meeting and it needs to explicitly state that the topics of discussion include increasing class
size, adding additional 5th grade class, adding middle school aides, re-affirming the part time
assistant director position, and adding a special program coordinator.
• Ryan Lucas will discuss the feasibility and cost associated with renting a couple of temporary
buildings from JeffCo.

Board and Public Comment:

• None
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Next board meeting scheduled for: March 19th, 2009 at: 6:30 pm

With no further business, this meeting was adjourned at: 10:35 PM

Motion: Jeff Robertson moved to adjourn the meeting; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussions: None.
Vote: 7-0, approved (No one abstained)

Respectfully submitted

William Tomasi
Secretary